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Recommendations for Perm. External Storage for Photos?

ipodlover77

ipodlover77

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 17, 2009
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Does anybody have a good recommendation for a external storage to run your photos library off of?
I just bought a base studio but have a 2TB photos library that I want to access at all time.
I don't need anything portable as it will be plugged in at all times.
I don't need a NAS so I don't need access in the cloud.
From my countless research, I've been reading to always have a back up handy so I guess I'll buy a cheap spinning platter hard drive as a fail safe but what should my main external be?
Every brand, Seagate, WD, etc. all have positive and negative reviews.
I just want something that is fast enough where it won't bog down photos scrolling.

I also noticed that many of these hard drives will require a USB C adapter (my A's are all occupied).
 
If you want the fastest, most reliable connection speeds, you might consider a Thunderbolt 3 external SSD. Not the cheapest but is fastest, most reliable and compatible option.
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Be aware that USB4/TB4 external SSD enclosures may not negotiate connection at USB4 and will fall backwards compatibility to USB 3.2 Gen 2 speeds, not TB3. Thorny issue with Mac Studio. Also, bus-powered USB externals are sometimes plagued with disconnects. You will not be happy when your external Photo Library drive disconnects. I've never had connection issues using Thunderbolt 3 external devices.
 
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ipodlover77 said:
Would it be safe though to leave it plugged in 24/7?
Click to expand...
This is what I've been using, with a Samsung 980 Pro for Time Machine on my M1 Studio for a couple years now. Only time I shut my computer off is if I'm going to be gone for more than a couple days. I also use one for multitrack recording on my 2019 Macbook. I did have one that that died two years ago, that was connected when I did a firmware update on my Studio Display. The Samsung was fine (still using it) the case wasn't. Not sure if it was just a coincidence, but I disconnect it now if there's a monitor update. I have left it during OS updates with no issues. I never got around to trying to return it, I was busy and the case was pretty cheep. I purchased two off Amazon and one directly from ACASIS when they had a sale.
 
OP:

You don't want "just one" drive.
You need AT LEAST TWO drives. Three would be better.

REASON WHY:
Your data IS NOT SAFE when stored on only one drive.
That drive could fail at any time.
Then... where will your data be?

So... at least two drives.

I'd suggest that the "primary/external" drive be an SSD.
The "secondary/backup" can be a platter-based HDD.

For the SSD, I'd avoid the Samsung external SSD's. I have two and they can be slightly "problematic" regarding write speeds.

Instead, I would recommend a Crucial X9. I also have one of these, and it's "a little gem". Small and fast.

For a backup, I'd suggest either Toshiba or HGST (formerly Hitachi).
Get a 2.5" SATA "portable-sized" drive.
Put it into a 2.5" USB3.1 gen2 enclosure.

I would recommend either CarbonCopyCloner or SuperDuper to periodically "clone" the contents of the primary/external SSD to the secondary/backup drive.

Keep the secondary/backup drive "apart from" where the computer is.
At the very least, get a small fire-resistant and waterproof storage safe and keep it inside.

If you live in a home with a basement, put this down in the basement.
The idea is to "disaster-proof" it as much as possible.

Here is where a "third drive" can come into play. You can store it "off-site" in another building, again as a protection against loss.

You may be thinking, "I don't want to go through all this"...
How much are those 2tb of pics worth to you?
 
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+1 on the Crucial X9. I picked up a 4tb X9 Pro last December for about $250 CDN. It’s amazingly small and very quick. I just slip it in with my MacBook Pro’s case and I’m always good to go.
 
Fishrrman said:
OP:

You don't want "just one" drive.
You need AT LEAST TWO drives. Three would be better.

REASON WHY:
Your data IS NOT SAFE when stored on only one drive.
That drive could fail at any time.
Then... where will your data be?

So... at least two drives.

You may be thinking, "I don't want to go through all this"...
How much are those 2tb of pics worth to you?
Click to expand...
Good advice. And if it's not practical to own a second or third drive that's stored offsite, use someone else's: the cloud. Just make sure everything on the drive(s) is backed up to the cloud on a regular basis, such as daily or weekly.
 
I've always kept my valuable data on a fault tolerant volume. For the last 25+ years actually. I currently use an OWC raid enclosure in raid 5 mode. Those are pretty expensive when you do them with SSDs. So I settle for a slight speed hit and use spinning disks. When you are buying 4-5 disks at at time the savings add up.
You could get a 2 disk raid enclosure. There are a ton of these on the market that have built in Raid 0/1/JBOD. Set it to Raid 1 and put in two identical disks. It won't be as fast as an SSD. But you can also get 16TB for less than $500. And have space left for timemachine.
 
Just remember that RAID is NOT a backup. Even with a RAID volume then you still want a backup of ant to ensure that the data is saved.
 
It's not a backup, it's a more robust local storage medium. I'm not talking about DR here. I'm talking about if you have a large digital footprint its much better to have it all on one fault tolerant volume than a bunch of little orange and silver drives in a drawer.
DR is a separate issue.
I do regular backups of certain things to cloud storage. I also have some legal things stored online and a bunch of branding and other IP stored in cloud storage that comes at the base level of a service or something I'm already enrolled in. You would be surprised how much cloud storage you already have from your iCloud, Adobe, ISP etc.
Of course that is basically offline storage unless you happen to have some insane network connection. Which is why I have the large local volume as a NAS or DAS. That's a backup too. Cloud companies get acquired, go out of business, get hacked, change their business model etc. I know, I worked at a few. Never have your only copy of something in the cloud.
If you are a business you should pay an IT professional to set up a DR plan for your company so that you can be back on your feet after a tornado/flood/earthquake.
 
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With that amount of photos I would put it on a checksumming filesystem like btrfs or zfs so that I can check integrity and automatically heal bitrot or disk failures (in the RAID profiles of the above fs). That means Linux or FreeBSD as the OS. Either build it yourself or get a NAS which packages the above.

I use primarily Linux/FreeBSD and cannot imagine risking important data on something else.
 
Jackbequickly said:
I use the Samsung T9. Plenty fast and works great.
Click to expand...
I was extremely dissapointed with the T9.
The T8 was a solid fast SSD. The T9 is an even faster cache glued to what has to be the slowest SSD ever made.
I open up Blackmagic Disk test and plug in the T9 when I want a laugh.
Oh look it's going to saturate the USB interface!
Oh wait, no. Now it's at dialup speed.
 
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I've had an OWC 1M2 for almost a month and can definitely endorse it. I have a Crucial P3 4 TB SSD in it and I get 2,594 / 2,834 read/write on it. The rated speed is 3,150 but I'm using a Gen 3 PCIe SSD. I am considering getting a Gen 4 which should give me full speed. The OWC is basically a big chunk of aluminum with no fan. It dissipates heat for me just fine. I think that these devices are generally commodities and your choice of going with a fan or passive is a personal choice. I don't want the noise from a fan and I'm using it with a desktop so the size and weight aren't issues for me.

I also have an Orico USB 3.1 Gen 2 for two years and it's a lot slower and I've had reliability issues with it - mostly in the form of disconnects.

I have a WD Elements 8 TB HDD for Time Machine backup. It backs up the internal 512 GB SSD and the external SSD excluding my Windows Virtual Machine which is a throwaway.

If you want even more speed, go with the M4 mini Pro with a Thunderbolt 5 enclosure and a Samsung 990 Pro. I would personally wait a while on Thunderbolt 5 enclosures and I'd prefer to wait for the M4 Studios to come out.
 
I have been looking in to a DAS. Im coming from a 2010 Mac Pro with a bunch of internal HDDs and SSDs. I do not need the fastest speeds but rather a lower price. As long as it lasts and doesnt burn up the drives im happy. Can anyone vouch for this…
 
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@n8mac Whilst I don't have any direct experience of this particular product, it is one of many older USB 3 enclosures that date back to the Intel Mac era, and uses a JMicron chipset that has a data sheet date stamped 2016.

The thing about modern Macs is that they are very stable with TB3/4/5 or USB4 enclosures, but not so much with ones connecting with USB 3.*.

So this Orico may work fine, but it may not. Especially if you put your Mac to sleep for extended periods.

My own workaround which solves the disconnection problem is to connect USB enclosures to a TB3 dock connected to my Mac.
A TB3 dock has its own USB 3 controller, which will most likely work more stably with external USB 3 SSDs/HDs.
If cost is a factor, then used TB3 docks are much more affordable now that they are no longer 'new' tech.

Not a TB4 or TB5 dock, as they don't have their own USB controller, and use the Mac's USB host controller.
 
PaulD-UK said:
@n8mac Whilst I don't have any direct experience of this particular product, it is one of many older USB 3 enclosures that date back to the Intel Mac era, and uses a JMicron chipset that has a data sheet date stamped 2016.

The thing about modern Macs is that they are very stable with TB3/4/5 or USB4 enclosures, but not so much with ones connecting with USB 3.*.

So this Orico may work fine, but it may not. Especially if you put your Mac to sleep for extended periods.

My own workaround which solves the disconnection problem is to connect USB enclosures to a TB3 dock connected to my Mac.
A TB3 dock has its own USB 3 controller, which will most likely work more stably with external USB 3 SSDs/HDs.
If cost is a factor, then used TB3 docks are much more affordable now that they are no longer 'new' tech.

Not a TB4 or TB5 dock, as they don't have their own USB controller, and use the Mac's USB host controller.
Click to expand...

I bought a cheap Orico USB 3 enclosure and performance is poor and it has issues disconnecting or with data loss. It's possible that it's heat-related and it happens on macOS and Windows. I ordered another OWC 1M2 to replace it. The TB3/4/5 USB 4 stuff is just like night and day in performance compared to USB 3. The only thing to be concerned about is sufficient cooling. I went with a passive device because I don't like the noise of small fans spinning really fast.

The 2010 Mac Pro has USB 2 and Firewire 800. It may be possible to put in a PCIe USB 3 card in it (I have on in a 2008 Dell Studio XPS and it speeds up I/O but it's probably one of the earlier USB3 generations.

So that storage array would work but at USB 2 speeds and, to me, that's painful.
 
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